PlanetCatfish.com

hello i have a new tank for my redcat tail fish.
and i want to know waht is the range of ph the fish can live..?
the ph in my tank tank is 7.8-8.0 is it o.k for the cat..?
Thank..

I believe they are very tolerant of Ph but maybe this is a bit high.
I will get back to ye on this after the movie.

Matt

It always used to be a recommendation of 6.6-6.9 but a little bit on the alkaline side can be tolerated (Cat-e-log goes up to 7.5).

For thew long term, i think your pH is currently a little high

Most fish are fairly tolerant to higher pH values - your location being Israel pretty much means that you have hard, alkaline water unless you work on the water chemistry with RO, DI or other "remove ions from the water". Just reducing the pH with a buffer/acid isn't really going to make any particular benefit to the fish, so lowering the pH can only, reasonably, be done by reducing the hardness of the water (and a "water softener" will not perform the task in the right way, as it will just make the water salty instead).

One consequence of the hard/alkaline water is that the ammonia that the fish produces, will become more toxic ammonium to a higher degree at higher pH values vs. at lower pH. This is of importance as large fish like this releases large amounts of ammonia, so biological filtration becomes even more important than it would be in a lower pH range.

I don't know about the temperature range in Israel, but it may be possible to keep this type of fish in a outdoor pond with limited heating at winter, which gives you a benefit over those living further north (or way south) that require indoor pond to keep this fish to mature size.

I'd be interested to hear what plans you have for it's future life, as I find it interesting to see/hear about the construction of large ponds and large tanks.

--
Mats

5.5 -6.8 ...is best for them.
Every one i've seen with Gill curl was kept in high PH .....